MX2008005696A - Methods and apparatuses to provide fault monitoring for a network interface device - Google Patents

Abstract

Various methods, apparatuses, and systems in which fault monitoring is provided to a network interface device are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a network interface device (NID) located outside a building and a power supply unit located inside the building. The power supply unit has one or more ports that couple via a phone line to the NID to provide a power signal to the NID. The apparatus further includes a monitor circuitry located in the power supply unit. The monitor circuitry monitors the power signal received by the NID via the phone line. The monitor circuitry checks for a fault condition of at least one phone device coupled to the phone line when the power signal changes by a predetermined amount.

Description

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING FAULT VERIFICATION FOR A NETWORK INTERFACE DEVICE TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The embodiments of the invention relate, in general, to telecommunication systems used to provide broadband access. More particularly, one aspect of one embodiment of the invention relates to supplying reinforcement power for network interface devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Typically, telecommunication systems that provide broadband access to users contain a communication line, digital subscriber line (DSL), or residential input which consists of an xDSL modem (any type of digital subscriber line). or xPON interface (any type of passive optical network) combined with several local area interconnection (LAN) technologies to allow the sharing of broadband access with other computers or devices within the building or residence. The standards for the wireless local area network and home telephone line interconnection (HPNA) are examples of LAN technology. In addition, some telecommunication systems may provide a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) feature to allow telephone calls via the broadband link. Some systems, in addition to sharing broadband access, need to distribute broadband media content such as video streams to various locations within the residence. Typically, the residential entrance is located inside the house. However, it is desirable to locate the residential input to the Network Interface Device (NID) outside the home. A NID is the demarcation point between the circuit of the Non-Integrated Network Element (UNE) and the inner wire of the end user. The reasons for wanting to locate the residential entry in the NID include the ability to provide simplified installation cabling and eliminate the need to make the user home when installation work occurs. In addition, when the fiber for the neighborhood is unwound, integration will be easier if active electronic devices are already present in the NID. Also, installation practices between xPON and xDSL systems can be merged so that the termination of the primary network is the only difference. However, a significant problem in trying to locate residential entry in the NID is the problem of providing power. Frequently, there is no alternate current (AC) power source accessible at the NID location. Consequently, the feeding of Energy from inside the house is a viable option. The use of existing telephone wiring would be the most desirable way, since the installation costs of the new wiring are prohibitive. However, existing telephone wiring if used to power the NID should not damage the telephone devices connected to the telephone wiring. Also, if a telecommunication system offers telephone services via a broadband link, then the system must have a backup power unit to ensure the availability of live line functionality such as 911 calls in the event of a power outage. In addition, existing telephone wiring must be reserved for voice band telephony including its Direct Current (CD) signaling requirement. This restriction seems to prevent its use to supply power to the NID.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Various methods, apparatuses and systems are provided which supply reinforcement energy to a network interface device. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a network interface device (NID) located outside the building and a power supply unit located within the building. The power supply unit has one or more ports that are coupled via a telephone line to the NID to provide an energy signal to the NID. The apparatus also includes a verification circuit located in the power supply unit. The verification circuit verifies the energy signal received by the NID via the telephone line. The verification circuit checks for a fault condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line when the energy signal changes by a predetermined amount.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example and without limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which similar references indicate similar elements and in which: Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment from a central office containing a Digital Subscriber Circuit Access Multiplexer that sends communications through a Non-Integrated Network Element (UNE) circuit to a network interface device (NID); Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of a mode of a power supply unit located within a building that provides power to an NID located outside the building; Figure 3 illustrates a detailed block diagram of one embodiment of a power supply unit. energy located within a building that provides power to an NID located outside the building; Figure 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method modality that provides verification of faults to a NID; and Figure 5 illustrates a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for providing a reinforcement power unit to a NID.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth, as examples of specific signals, named components, connections, exemplary voltages, etc. to provide a better understanding of the present invention. It will be clear, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention can be practiced without those specific details. In other cases, well-known components or methods have not been described in detail but in a block diagram to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention. The specific details presented are merely exemplary. The specific details may vary from and still be contemplated within the spirit and scope of the present invention. The term coupled is defined as the meaning of either directly connected to the component or indirectly to the component a through another component. In general, various methods, apparatuses and systems are described on which failure verification is provided to a network interface device. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a network interface device (NID) located outside a building and a power supply unit located within the building. The power supply unit has one or more ports that are coupled via a telephone line to the NID to provide a power signal to the NID. The apparatus also includes a verification circuit located in the power supply unit. The verification circuit verifies the energy signal received by the NID via the telephone line. The verification circuit checks for a fault condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line when the energy signal changes by a predetermined amount. The NID has a switching unit to decouple a load from the NID of the telephone line, so that the load does not receive the power signal from the power supply unit during the period of detection of a fault. Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of a central office mode that contains a Digital Subscriber Access Access Multiplexer that sends communications through a non-Network Element circuit.

Integrated (UNE) to a NID network interface device. The power is provided to a digital subscriber line (DSL) input 170 located on the NID 160 via an existing telephone line 101 by a Power Supply Unit (PSU) 150 located within the 110 hole. The NID 160 is the point of demarcation between the UNE 180 circuit and the telephone line of the end user 101. In this way, a single existing telephone line 101 is used to supply the demands of the DSL 170 input located in the NID 160. This is achieved, in part, placing active electronic devices in the NID 160, and causing the internal power supply to power the single telephone line 101. As shown in Figure 1, one or more telephones 140 can be coupled to the line 101. Other devices can also be coupled to line 130, such as fax machines, answering machines, analog modems, to line 101. A computer 120 can also be coupled to line 101. Optional HPNA devices can also be coupled to line 101, such as via a filter (not shown) ). An HPNA device can be connected to a media device, such as a set-top box. Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of a mode of a power supply unit (PSU) located within a building that provides power to a network interface device (NID) located outside the building. The apparatus 200 includes the NID 210 coupled to the PSU 202 via the telephone line 230. The NID 210 includes a digital subscriber line (DSL) input 212. In addition to the broadband media content, the DSL 212 input provides the connection Internet protocol (IP) required for voice over IP (VOIP). The PSU 202 located within the building has one or more ports 209 that are coupled via the telephone line 230 to the NID 210 to provide an energy signal to the NID 210. The PSU 202 includes a power unit 204, a filter 206, and a Verification circuit 208. PSU 202 can be connected to 120 volts (V) of AC and generates a power signal at a particular frequency which is injected over telephone line 230. The selected frequency can be, for example, 25 kilohertz (KHz). At 25 KHz, the energy signal does not interfere with the voice service, since it is very far from the voice band and is inaudible. The energy signal can be injected over the telephone line 230 via a series resonant LC filter 206 having a quality factor (Q). The filter 206 is dimensioned so that the impedance and losses of the filter 206 are minimized to 25 KHz but high to frequencies above and below 25 KHz. The filter 206 effectively isolates the 25 KHz from the voice band, which is from 0 to 4 KHz and the connection band of the domestic telephone line (HPNA) which is 4 megahertz (MHz) and higher as well as the DSL band. The energy can be received at the DSL input 212 through a similar filter 218 for the same reason. Between the PSU 202 and the NID 210, several voiceband telephone devices 240 are typically connected. A filter is generally required at the front of each telephone device to protect and isolate it from the power signal. The 25 KHz signal is well above the voice band, but the signal can potentially damage phones that are not protected by the required filter. Typically, the installation of a multiple-order low pass filter to protect the phone is the responsibility of the owner of the home or end user. Some end users forget and install a filter on the front of each telephone device. In this case, the telephone device can be potentially damaged by the 25 KHz power signal. The verification circuit 208 checks the energy signal received by the NID 210 via the telephone line 230. The verification circuit 208 checks a failure condition of telephone devices 240 that are coupled to the telephone line 230. The fault condition is detected when the energy signal changes by an amount predetermined, which may indicate the absence of a protective filter coupled to the telephone device 240. The predetermined amount may be a change in the energy signal that is present to the energy signal that is not present. The verification circuit 208 includes a normal mode for typical NID 210 operations and a fault detection mode for verifying the failure condition of at least one telephone device 240 during the fault detection mode. The NID 210 continues to operate normally during the fault detection mode, but the power source for the NID is already the PSU 202. Instead, the NID 210 receives power from the CD 220 booster power unit during the mode Fault detection. The DSL input 212 supports DSL communications and includes a switching unit 216 which is configured to couple a load 214 to a filter 218 during the normal mode of the verification circuit 208. The filter 218 is configured to limit a signal bandwidth of power sent to the NID 210. The switching unit 216 is configured to decouple the load 214 from the filter 218 during the failure detection mode of the verification circuit 208. The load 214 is configured to receive energy from the reinforcement energy unit. of CD 220 during the fault detection mode. The load 214 includes one or more components located on the NID 210 that have a low impedance trajectory. The switching of power supplies between the CD 220 booster unit and the PSU 202 located within the building occurs on a periodic basis even when there is no fault condition. The apparatus 200 can implement an energy interruption and verification scheme. In certain embodiments, at regular intervals, perhaps once per second, the DSL input 212 stops the 25 KHz power consumption of the PSU 202 for a short period of time. The period of time can be, for example, 10 milliseconds in duration. For example, the verification circuit 208 may be in the normal mode at 99 percent of the time, and in a failure detection mode at one percent of the time. Although in the fault detection mode, the DSL input 212 depends on the CD booster 220 power unit. During the fault detection mode, since the load 214 is not consuming power from the PSU 202, the PSU 202 it can not verify its outgoing power to determine if a fault condition exists such as a telephone device 240 without the required protective filter. If the PSU 202 detects that a predetermined amount of energy is being consumed during this failure detection mode, the PSU 202 can appropriately determine that a fault condition exists and communicates that to the DSL input 212 and / or the user. The predetermined amount of energy that is being consumed that indicates a fault condition can be 1 to 10 milliwatts (m) of energy. In certain embodiments, the communication is by means of the signaling of light emitting diodes (LEDs) on the PSU 202. In this way, the user can make corrections until the failure condition is eliminated. Other work cycles can be used for timing intervals to achieve the same final result. The control of this function can be in the PSU 202 or the gate DSL 212 using a bidirectional communication link. In this way, the design of the apparatus 200 can use associated circuits that allow the load 214 to periodically disconnect from the telephone line 230. The apparatus 200 provides automatic fault detection, so that the user can self-correct problems in the Installation wiring without necessarily involving technical support personnel. The apparatus 200 also provides the ability to verify the proper installation necessary to be able to use the 25 KHz power supply scheme. In addition, the user who owns the telephone equipment will not be harmed due to improper installation of the filters. Certain modalities solve problems associated with the location of the CD booster power unit 220 within the home by locating the CD 220 booster power unit on the NID 210. This provides much greater accessibility to telecommunications personnel for routine installation and testing and maintenance. As discussed above, the CD booster 220 provides reinforcement power to the NID 210, which is configured to periodically change between the reception of the power signal from the PSU 202 and the CD booster energy unit. 220 even though there is no fault condition in the PSU 202. The CD booster 220 power unit may include a battery source, energy cell source, or similar power source. Locating the CD booster 220 power unit within the NID 210 facilitates a higher system efficiency and a smaller size of the CD booster 220 power unit compared to the location of the CD booster 220 power unit in a different place. The location of the CD booster 220 power unit in the NID 210 minimizes the physical dimensions of the CD 220 booster unit based on the minimization of the energy conversion loss of the booster power unit of CD 220 compared to a second CD booster energy unit (not shown) located outside the NID 210. A single conversion of energy for the CD booster 220 power unit located at the NID 210 while an additional energy conversion may be necessary for the second CD booster power unit located outside the NID 210 as in the PSU 202. The location of the the reinforcement power unit of CD 220 in the NID 210 further minimizes the size of the CD reinforcement power unit 220 on the basis of minimizing a transmission loss of the power supplied to the NID 210 of the power unit. CD booster 220 energy compared to a second CD booster energy unit (not shown) located outside the NID 210. For example, the second CD booster energy unit located in the PSU 202 experiences a loss of transmission and provides the distance from the PSU 202 to the NID 210. The location of the CD 220 booster power unit in the NID 210 also provides access from the outside to the power unit d and reinforcement of CD 220 to have trained technical support personnel install and maintain the CD 220 booster power unit without access to the building. In certain embodiments, the apparatus 200 includes a CD booster 220 power unit located at the NID 210. The telephone line 230 may include a first telephone line having a first ring / tip pair that is coupling to a 25 KHz power signal between the PSU 202 and the NID 210. In another embodiment, the telephone line 230 may include a second and third telephone line. The second telephone line includes a wire of a second ring / tip pair and the third telephone line includes a wire of a third ring / tip pair that couples an energy signal between the PSU 210 and the NID 210. The energy signal may be a CD energy signal isolated from the ground. Figure 3 illustrates a detailed block diagram of a mode of a power supply unit located within a building that provides power to an NID located outside the building. A system 300 includes the NID 310 coupled to the PSU 380 via a telephone line 360. The NID 310 includes a communication input (CG) 320 with a subscriber line interface circuit (SLIC) 332 coupled to the telephone line 360. The PSU 380 has one or more ports 381 that are coupled via the telephone line 360 to the CG 320 to provide a power signal to the CG 380. The PSU 380 includes a verification circuit 392 that verifies the energy signal received by the NID 310 via telephone line 360. Verification circuit 392 verifies the failure condition of at least one telephone device (e.g., telephones 352, 356 and 362) when the energy signal changes by a predetermined amount. He Verification circuit 392 has a normal mode and a fault detection mode for detecting the occurrence of fault condition in at least one telephone device during the fault detection mode. The CG 320 includes a switching unit 342 configured to couple a load 350 to a rectifier 340 which is coupled to a series resonant filter 338 during the normal mode. The series resonant filter 338 is configured to limit the bandwidth of the energy signal received from the PSU 380. The switching unit 342 is configured to decouple the load 350 from the 338 series resonant filter during the fault detection mode. of the verification circuit 392. The load 350 is configured to receive energy from a DC direct current (DC) power unit 348 during the fault detection mode. The load 350 includes one or more components located on the NID 310 having a low impedance path as a switching power supply unit 346 and the CD booster 348 power unit. The load 350 receives power from the power unit. CD 348 booster energy on a periodic basis even when there is no fault condition. The GC 320 includes a processing unit 330 for controlling the normal operations of the GC 320 in addition to controlling the switching unit 342. The PSU 380 includes status indicators as a light emitting diode (LED) display 396 to indicate the occurrence in a fault condition to protect the telephone devices from damage by the power signal. Although in the fault detection mode, the CG 320 receives power from the CD booster 348 power unit. During the fault detection mode, since the GC 320 is not consuming power from the PSU 380, the PSU 380 You can check your outgoing power to determine if there is a fault condition such as a telephone device without the required protective filter. If the PSU 380 detects that a predetermined amount of power is being consumed during this failure detection mode, then the PSU 380 can determine that a fault condition exists and communicates that to the NID "'310, the user, and the provider of the fault. service / maintenance The predetermined amount of energy that is being consumed that indicates a fault condition can be from 1 to 10 milliwatts (mW) of energy In certain modalities, the communication is by means of the signaling of light emitting diodes ( LED) on the PSU 380. In this way, the user can make corrections until the fault condition is eliminated.Any other work cycles and timing intervals can be used to achieve the same final result.The control of this function can be in the PSU 380 or in the CG 320 using a bidirectional communication link. The CG 320 provides the end point for a feed line 322, which may be an xDSL feed line or a fiber feed line if xPON. In addition, the content of broadband media, the CG 200 provides the Internet protocol connection necessary for the voice over internet protocol (VOIP). The voice data is encoded and decoded by the processor 330 and sent through the subscriber line interface circuit (SLIC) 332. The SLIC 332 provides functionality similar to that of the central office of Figure 1 to any connected telephones to the telephone line 360. The SLIC 332 has a telephone filter 334 on the front thereof to provide insulation and impedance filtering of the telephone line 360. According to one embodiment, the telephone filter 334 is a bidirectional low pass filter. of multiple order that has a slit at a selected frequency to add attenuation. The telephone filters 354 and 358 provide isolation and impedance filtering for telephones 352 and 356, respectively. The optional HPNA device 366 may provide impedance filtering and isolation for the telephone 362 and the SLIC 364. The optional HPNA device 370 may provide isolation and impedance filtering for the media device 368.

The GC 320 may optionally have other 326 communication ports, such as a coaxial or wireless cable port. The CG 320 can optionally support HPNA interconnection to allow delivery of media content to HPNA 328 devices such as set-top boxes inside the building. Referring to Figure 3, the PSU 380 can be connected to a power supply of 120 Volts (V) of CA 372 and generates an energy signal at a particular frequency which is injected over the telephone line 360. The frequency selected can be , for example, 25 KHz. At 25 KHz, the energy signal does not interfere with the voice service, since it is above the voice band and is inaudible. The energy signal can be injected over the telephone line 360 via a series resonant LC filter 378 having a fine quality factor (Q). The LC 378 filter is sized so that the impedance and losses of the LC 378 filter are minimized to 25 KHz but are high at frequencies above and below 25 KHz. The LC 378 filter effectively isolates the 25 KHz from the voice band which is from 0 to 4 KHz and from the HPNA band which is 4 megahertz (MHz) and higher as well as the DSL band. The 25 KHz power signal can be as high as the 30-Volt Medium Square Root (Vrms) and yet satisfy the requirements of the National Electrical Code for energy of class two. The voltage should be kept as high as possible to minimize the loss of energy through the telephone line 360 to the GC 320. The generation of the 25 KHz power signal can be achieved using a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 388 connected to a power amplifier 376. The power amplifier 376 can be a class D amplifier. The power amplifier 376 could also be linear. The power supply of the power amplifier 376 is received from an AC to DC supply converter 374 which receives an AC voltage from the power supply 372 of 120 VAC. At GC 320, the 25 KHz signal is extracted from a series resonant LC filter 338. The signal is rectified using rectifier 340. Rectifier 340 can be implemented using diodes. Alternatively, the rectifier 340 may be implemented using transistors in a synchronous rectifier configuration. The switching unit 342 can be located external to the rectifier 340 as illustrated in Figure 3. Alternatively, the switching unit 342 can be located internal to the rectifier 340. The filtered signal V + is then used to feed the multitude of control circuits of supply of switching power located in the unit switching power supply 346 on the GC 320. The switching power supply unit 346 provides various power supplies to the NID components. The telephones sharing the telephone line 360 are isolated from the impedance of the 25 KHz power signal so as not to be adversely affected and also to not charge the power signal. In certain embodiments, the telephones sharing the telephone line 360 are isolated from the impedance of the 25 KHz power signal having telephone filters between each telephone and the telephone line 360. The telephone filters can be bidirectional low pass filters of multiple order that have a slit at 25 KHz for greater attenuation. In the PSU 380, the verification circuit 392 includes a current detector 382 and a microcontroller 384 having a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 388, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 386 and a central processing unit ( CPU 390). Microcontroller 384 may include a modulator, a demodulator, a quadrature phase comparator and a voltage controlled oscillator. In certain modalities, these functions are now performed in the digital domain with a microcode. The analog interfaces will occur through analog-to-digital (ADC) 386 and digital converters to analog (DAC) 388. The ADC 386 checks the current and the DAC 382 generates the modulated 25 KHz sinusoid. The microcontroller 384 uses a current detector 382 to measure if there is any charge current that is being consumed by improperly installed devices anywhere in the system 300. The LED display 396 is an example of indicators that can be implemented in the PSU 380 to reflect the status of the GC 320, the PSU 380, or both. The PSU 380 may have indicator lights that reflect a condition such as that related to the GC 320. Other indicators may also be used. In certain modes, the LEDs can be renewed at a speed of 2 KHz with 8 bits. According to certain embodiments, the communication upstream of the PSU 380 to the GC 320 is allowed by the modulation of the 25 KHz energy signal using an internal modulation function to the microcontroller 384. Accordingly, the current consumption of the CG 320 can be modulated by the modulation feedback control pins of the switching power supply unit 346 with some low frequency data of the order of hundreds of hertz. Frequency modulation can be used but other types of modulation could also be used (e.g., amplitude modulation (AM), phase modulation (PM), and phase transfer (PSK)). A control signal can be coded from the upstream data, derived from the switches of the user 394. In the GC 320, the 25 KHz signal can be verified by frequency (or phase in the case of PM or magnitude in the case of AM ) and demodulated using the demodulator 336 to recover the data. In the downstream direction, the concept of load modulation is employed. A transistor 341 represents a bypass load that is parallel to the switching power supply unit 346. The transistor 341 is diverted to a small percentage of the load 350, and then modulated around the center point by an amplitude modulator 337, causing it to modulate the current consumption of 25 KHz. In the PSU 380, the current consumption is verified using the current detector 382 to provide a signal that can be demodulated by the microcontroller 384. After the demodulation is decoded using the decoding logic to activate the LED display 396. In certain modes, the signal is decoded with an error check to prevent a power interruption of the PSU 380 from causing a false reset or reboot. In both directions, the modulation and demodulation functions can be implemented with integrated low frequency modem (FSK) modem microcircuits. cost, double-tone encoders / decoders-multifrequency (DTMF, also known as tone-dialing), or other circuits. The PSU 380 can have a reset button that can be used to remotely reset the NID 310. Certain embodiments solve problems associated with the location of the CD 348 booster energy unit within a building by locating the CD 348 booster power unit on the NID 310. This provides much greater accessibility to telecommunications personnel for the installation and tests and routine maintenance. The GC 320 further includes the CD booster 348 power unit, which includes a control circuit 347 and a backup power supply 349. The control circuit 347 checks the condition of the battery, allowing fast and slow charging , as well as a cyclical download. In certain embodiments, all of this is controlled from the processing unit 330 by checking at least one of the voltage, current and temperature of the CD booster 348. The CD booster 348 provides reinforcement energy to the NID 310 , which is configured to periodically change between the reception of the PSU 380 power signal and the CD 348 backup power unit even when there is no fault condition in the PSU 380.

The processing unit 330 can control the periodic switching between the energy signal received from the PSU 380 and the CD booster 348. Alternatively, the GC 320 may have a controller to control the periodic switching between the signal of energy received from the PSU 380 and the CD booster 348. In certain embodiments, the CD 348 booster energy unit includes a pack of lead acid batteries. In certain modalities, to avoid space restrictions, a higher density battery technology would be desirable. The lithium ion, with an energy density greater than 4 times that of lead-acid or Nickel Metal Hydride at twice the lead-acid density, are two alternative battery technologies that can be employed. Because the battery pack is accessible to telecommunications personnel, the battery pack can be sized according to specific needs. The battery pack can be configurable in the field so that, for example, one or two packages are used to provide varying durations of reinforcement support based on specific needs that can change over time. Lithium Ion Battery and Nickel Metal Hydride battery technology requires the use of smart charging. Intelligent charging means that voltage, current, and possibly the temperature can be checked while charging to adapt the charging characteristics to the battery status. The processing unit 330 can control the intelligent loading. In this way it is necessary to avoid damage to the cells, as well as to optimize the time and efficiency of the load cycle. In addition, a periodic discharge and recharge is required in the CD 348 booster energy unit which can be viewed as a normal discharge job simply on an occasional, sporadic basis. Having the CD booster 348 located within the CD 320 in the NID 310 allows the CD booster 348 to take advantage of the high capacity microprocessor located in the processing unit 330 that was already required and therefore he was present in GC 320 for other functions. This avoids the need to charge the PSU 380 with additional microprocessor capacity. The location of the CD booster 348 power unit in the NID 310 minimizes the size of the CD booster 348 power unit based on the minimization of transmission losses of the energy supplied to the NID 310 from the CD booster 348 compared to a second CD booster energy unit (not shown) located outside the NID 310. For example, the second CD booster energy unit located in the PSU 380 experiences a loss of transmission in proportion to the distance of the PSU 380 to the NID 310. The location of the CD booster 348 power unit in the NID 310 also provides access from the outside to the CD booster 348 power unit to make that trained technical support personnel install and maintain the CD 348 booster power unit without having access to the building. The system 300 may include a CD booster 348 located on the NID 310. The telephone line 360 may include a first telephone line having a first ring / tip pair that is coupled to an energy signal of 25 KHz. between the PSU 380 and the NID 310. Alternatively, the telephone line 360 may include a second and a third telephone line. The second telephone line includes a wire of a second ring / tip pair and the third telephone line includes a wire of a third ring / tip pair which is coupled to a power signal between the PSU 380 and the NID 310. The signal of energy can be a DC energy signal isolated from the ground. Figure 4 illustrates a flow chart of a method mode for providing failure verification to a network interface device (NID). In block 402, method 400 includes locating a communication entry in the NID located outside the building. At block 404, method 400 includes supplying power to the NID with a power supply unit located inside the building using a telephone line. In block 406, method 400 includes verifying the power supplied to the NID via the telephone line. A failure condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line is detected when a predetermined amount of energy is consumed from the power supplied to the NID via the telephone line. In block 408, method 400 includes indicating the occurrence of the fault condition to protect the telephone devices from damage by the power supply received by the communication input via the telephone line. An alarm, light emitting diodes, or other device may be used to indicate the occurrence of the fault condition. In block 410, method 400 includes responding to the occurrence of a fault condition by removing the power supply of the NID via the telephone line to protect the telephone devices from damage by the power supply. In block 412, method 400 includes responding to the occurrence of the failure condition by decreasing the power supply of the network interface device to protect the telephone devices from damage by the power supplied. In block 414, method 400 includes responding to the occurrence of the failure condition by sending an error signal to a service / maintenance provider, such as the central office of the telephone service provider. Figure 5 illustrates a flow chart of one embodiment of a method for providing a reinforcement power unit to a NID. In block 502, method 500 includes locating a communication input in a network interface device (NID) located outside of a building. In block 504, method 500 includes supplying power to the NID with a power supply unit within the building. In block 506, the method includes providing reinforcement energy with NID with a CD booster energy unit located in the NID. In block 508, method 500 includes periodically changing the supply energy of the NID from the supply power received from the supply unit to the reinforcement energy provided by the CD booster energy unit even when there is no fault condition in the power supply unit. In block 510, method 500 includes controlling the charge of the CD booster energy unit with a processing unit located at the communication input to optimize the efficiency of the load by checking at least one of the voltage, current and temperature of the CD booster energy unit. In this way, according to modalities of the present invention, systems, apparatuses and methods for providing a CD reinforcement energy unit to a NID are described. The systems, devices and methods allow power to be supplied to the NID located outside a building with a power supply unit located within the building via a telephone line that also provides voice and DSL services. Failure verification of telephone devices coupled to the telephone line occurs when the NID load is decoupled from the telephone line. The configurations described here solve several key deployment problems and allow a practical distribution system for broadband and voice media content services. Although some specific embodiments of the invention have been shown, the invention is not limited to those embodiments. For example, most of the functions performed by the electronic equipment components can be duplicated by simulation of programs and programming or software systems. In this way, a software program written to perform those functions can simulate the functionality of the physical components of computation or hardware. The logic of the physical components of computing or hardware may consist of electronic circuits that follow the rules of Boolean logic, programs and programming or software systems that contain instruction patterns, or any combination of both. The invention should be understood as not being limited by the specific embodiments described herein, but only by the scope of the appended claims. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (20)

1. CLAIMS 1.
2. An apparatus, characterized in that it comprises: A network interface device (NID) located outside a building; a power supply unit located within the power supply unit having one or more ports that are coupled via a telephone line to the NID to provide a power signal to the NID; and a verification circuit located in the power supply unit, the verification circuit for verifying the energy signal received by the NID via the telephone line, where the verifier verifies a failure condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line when the energy signal changes by a predetermined amount.
3. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the verification circuit has a normal mode and a fault detection mode for detecting the failure condition of at least one telephone device during the fault detection mode.
4. The apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the NID further comprises a digital subscriber line (DSL) input to support DSL communications and has a switching unit configured to couple a consistent load of one or more components in the NID to a series resonant filter during normal mode, the series resonant filter configured to receive the power signal from the power supply unit. .
5. The apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the switching unit is configured to decouple the load of the resonant filter in series during the fault detection mode of the verification circuit, the load includes one or more components in the NID and is configured to receive power from a direct current (DC) booster energy unit located within the NID during the fault detection mode, the switching of power supplies between the CD booster power unit and the power supply unit Energy located within the building occurs on a periodic basis even when there is no fault condition.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the power supply unit is configured to provide the power signal over the telephone line at a frequency with a range of 20 KHz to 50 KHz, which is above of a voice frequency band and below a frequency band of telephone line interconnection domestic The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the power supply unit further comprises a series resonant filter configured to limit a bandwidth of the signal sent to the NID.
7. 7. A system, characterized in that it comprises; a network interface device (NID) located outside a building, the NID having a communication port with a subscriber line interface circuit coupled to a telephone line; a power supply unit located within the building, the power supply unit having one or more ports that are coupled via the telephone line to the communication input to provide a power signal to the communication input; and a verification circuit located in the power supply unit, the verification circuit for verifying the energy signal received by the NID via the telephone line, where the verifier verifies by a fault condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line when a predetermined change occurs in the amount of power in the power signal.
8. 8. The apparatus in accordance with claim 7, characterized in that the verification circuit has a normal mode and a fault detection mode for detecting the occurrence of a fault condition of at least one telephone device during the fault detection mode.
9. 9. The apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the communication input further comprises a switching unit configured to couple a load consisting of a few more components in the NID to a rectifier which is coupled to a resonant filter in series during the normal mode, the series resonant filter configured to receive the energy signal from the power supply unit.
10. The apparatus according to claim 9, characterized in that the switching unit is configured to decouple the load of the resonant series filter during the failure detection mode of the verification circuit, the load is configured to receive energy from a unit Direct current (DC) boost energy located within the NID during the fault detection mode, which occurs on a periodic basis when there is no fault condition.
11. The apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that the power supply unit further comprises state indicators to indicate the occurrence of the fault condition to protect the telephone devices against damage by the power signal.
12. The apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that the verification circuit further comprises a current detector and a microcontroller having a digital-to-analog converter, an analog-to-digital converter, and a central processing unit.
13. 13. A method, characterized in that it comprises: locating a communication input in a network interface device (NID) located outside of a building; power the NID with a power supply unit inside the building using a telephone line; and verifying the power supplied to the NID via the telephone line, where a failure condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line is detected when a predetermined amount of power energy supplied to the NID is consumed via the telephone line.
14. 14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that it also comprises, indicating the occurrence of the fault condition to protect telephone devices against damage by the power supply received by the communication input via the telephone line.
15. 15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising responding to the occurrence of the fault condition by removing the NID power supply via the telephone line to protect the telephone devices from damage by the power supply.
16. 16. The method of compliance with the claim 15, characterized in that responding to the occurrence of the fault condition further comprises shutting down the NID to protect the telephone devices against damage by the power supplied.
17. 17. The method of compliance with the claim 13, characterized in that responding to the occurrence of the fault condition further comprises sending an error signal to a service provider.
18. 18. An apparatus, characterized in that it comprises: means for locating a communication input in a network interface device (NID) located outside a building; means for supplying power to the NID with a power supply unit within the building using a telephone line; Y means for verifying the power supplied to the NID via the telephone line, where a failure condition of at least one telephone device coupled to the telephone line is detected when a predetermined amount of power energy supplied to the NID is consumed via the telephone line.
19. 19. The apparatus according to claim 18, characterized in that it further comprises indicating the occurrence of the fault condition to protect the telephone devices against damage by the power supply received by the communication input via the telephone line.
20. 20. The apparatus according to claim 19, characterized in that responding to the occurrence of the failure condition further comprises sending an error signal to a service provider.